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WINNER
WINNER '(Hangul: 위너), is a South Korean boy group formed in 2013 by YG Entertainment and the first boy group to debut under the same entertainment eight years after BIGBANG. The group consists of four members: Seungyoon, Jinwoo, Seunghoon and Mino. They officially debuted on August 15, 2014 with the song ''Empty from their first full album 2014 S/S. Originally a five-piece, member Taehyun left the group in November 2016. WINNER's fans are called Inner Circle, meaning they are the heart/core of the group, an exclusive circle. Also, the Korean word for inner cicle, 내부원 (naebuwon), sounds like the english Number One, meaning that, like WINNER, their fans are also winners. It's often shortened to Inseos, IC's or Incles. Members = '''(From oldest to youngest) = * Kim Jin-Woo (김진우), better known as Jinwoo or Jinu: lead vocalist and visual. He's also an actor and a model. * Lee Seung-Hoon (이승훈), also known as Hoony: main dancer, lead rapper, sub-vocalist, composer and choreographer. * Song Min-Ho (송민호), better known as Mino: main rapper, face of the group and composer. He's also a producer, model and an actor. * Kang Seung-Yoon (강승윤), also known as Yoon: leader, main vocalist, composer and maknae. He's also a producer, model and an actor. = (Former member) = * Nam Tae-Hyun (남태현), better known as Taehyun: former main vocalist and maknae. He's now a member of South Club and owns his own agency South Buyers Club. He's a producer, composer and actor. Pre-Debut Seungyoon Before debuting, in 2010, WINNER's leader Kang Seungyoon was a contestant on the singing contest Superstar K2, ''where he reached the final four. In 2011 he signed with YG Entertainment and made his acting debut in ''High Kick: Revenge of the Short Legged. In 2013, he debuted as a solo artist and released many tracks, including "It Rains". Jinwoo Kim Jinwoo attended the Joy Dance Plug In Music Academy prior to joining YG, where he was seen by Big Bang's Seungri, who brought him to the agency. He became a trainee in 2010. Seunghoon Lee Seunghoon competed in K-Pop Star 1 in 2012. He came in fourth place and was recruited by Yang Hyun-suk. He signed under YG Entertainment on May 16, 2012. Mino Song Minho began his musical career as an underground rapper under the name "Mino", collaborating with other underground rappers-turned-idols such as Block B's Zico, Kyung, P.O and SPEED's Taewoon. Mino was initially meant to debut with Block B, but left the group before their debut for personal reasons. In 2011, he debuted under Y2Y Contents Company as part of the group BoM, which disbanded two years later. In 2013, he joined YG Entertainment through an audition, after being spotted from his acting appearance in the 2012 series The Strongest K-POP Survival broadcast on Channel A. Taehyun Nam Taehyun was recruited in 2011 through an audition. He and Jinwoo performed as backup dancers at the 2011 YG Family Concert. Debut 2013 - WIN: WHO IS NEXT In 2013, YG Entertainment announced that they would be creating a survival show called WIN: Who Is Next, which would determine who would be the first boy group to debut after BIGBANG. The five members of WINNER were Team A, while Team B consisted of six out of the seven current members of the boy group iKon. During the finale episode on October 25, 2013, it was announced that they had won the competition. The recieved the name WINNER. Later that year, WINNER performed as the opening act for BIGBANG's Japanese dome tour beginning on November 15. In December 13, Winner appeared in their own reality program, Winner TV, which had ten episodes aired on Mnet. 2014 - Debut and first full-album '2014 S/S' In 2014, Seungyoon and Mino featured on a track for Yoon Jong-shin's March project. Between June and August of that year, the group members were re-introduced to the public in anticipation for their debut, through a series of teaser images and videos On August 6, WINNER's official debut showcase was held, with their album 2014 S/S digitally released on August 12 and physically on August 14. 2014 S/S was released on August 12, and YG Entertainment revealed that WINNER's official debut would take place on August 15 in YG's Family Concert. In a matter of hours, their debut song 'Empty' peaked at number one in the music charts of MelOn, Mnet, Genie, Olleh Music, Soribada, Monkey3, Bugs Music, Daum Music and Naver Music. Their second title track, Color Ring reached 2nd place in most of South Korea's music charts. Their first music show appearance was on Inkigayo on August 17, and they became the fastest male group to win on a music show by taking first place on M! Countdown during their debut stage. The album charted at number one on Billboard World Albums Chart while their lead single "Empty" achieved an "all-kill" in South Korea, becoming the group's first number one hit on the Gaon Chart. On August 17 YG Entertainment also revealed WINNER's fandom name, which would be known as Inner Circle ever since. On September 10, the group released the Japanese version of their debut album, 2014 S/S: Japan Collection which peaked at No.2 on the Oricon Daily Album Chart. They embarked on their first Japanese solo concert on September 11. The group successfully concluded the tour in Tokyo on October 11, drawing 50,000 fans in total. On December 9, 2014 Fuse announced their 13 Top Breakout Artists of 2014, with Winner coming in at #11 and being the only South Korean artists on the list. On December 17 Dazed Digital published their top 20 K-pop tracks of 2014 with Winner placing tenth with "Color Ring". 2015 - Solo endeavors In 2015, the group went on hiatus and the members pursued solo endeavors. Seungyoon areturned to acting with the successful CJ E&M web drama We Broke Up, that garnered over 16 million views. Jinwoo appeared in the Chinese-Korean drama Magic Cellphone, while Mino competed on the fourth season of Mnet's rap contest Show Me the Money. A great number of his digital releases from the program were commercially successful, including "Fear", which featured Taeyang. It became the show's most downloaded single with over one million digital sales. In September, the group embarked on their second Japan tour which wrapped up in October with over 36,000 attendees. In December, it was announced that the group would be returning from hiatus in 2016, with a comeback spread over five 'project releases'. 2016 - First mini-album EXIT:E and Taehyun's departure The group's first release in 2016 was a duet featuring Mino and Taehyun, called Pricked. Artists like Lee Hi, Zion.T, Epik High, Taeyang and G-Dragon covered WIN NER's title tracks, releasing them as promotional teasers. On February 1, they first mini-album EXIT:E ''was finally released, debuting at No. 2 on Billboard's World Albums Chart and No. 3 on the Heatseekers Album Chart. ''BABY BABY'' and ''SENTIMENTAL'' topped eight music charts in Korea and achieved a real-time all-kill. ''WINNER Exit Tour in Seoul', WINNER's first concert, was held on March 12 and 13 ar Olympic Gymnasiums Arena in Seoul, also stopping in Gwangju, Daegu and Busan in April. In April, Winner appeared on the JTBC variety show Half-Moon Friends. The show was popular in China, garnering 75 million views via the Chinese platform Miaopai. They were also named as celebrity ambassadors for 2016 Korea Brand & Entertainment EXPO by KOTRA. In June, the group then began their third Japanese tour which drew 36,000 fans in total. On October 12, YG Entertainment announced that Taehyun would be taking a hiatus from the group, and that the rest of the Exit Movement series would be delayed indefinitely. On November 25, Taehyun's departure from the group was announced. It was decided that Winner would continue as a four-member group, without any addition of new members. In November, Jinwoo was announced as the lead in the production of The Little Prince by the Korea National Contemporary Dance Company. He became the first K-pop idol to be part of contemporary dance production. Also, it was announced that Seungyoon and Jinwoo will be starring in the web drama Love for a Thousand More. The web drama was a joint production of CJ E&M, YG Entertainment and YGKPlus. '''2017 - First and second single albums Fate Number For and Our Twenty Four On January 2017, many rumors appeared about WINNER having a comeback on the first half of the year, which were later confirmed by YG Entertainment, announcing WINNER's comeback to be on April 4th. In late March, several teasers were released, and WINNER officially came back on April 4th with the single album 'Fate Number For', which had two title-tracks, 'FOOL' and 'REALLY REALLY''.'' "REALLY REALLY" debuted at No. 3 on Billboard's World Digital Song Sales, marking the group's best position to date, while "FOOL" debuted at No. 4. "REALLY REALLY" was also chosen as one of the songs on Apple Music's “Best of the Week” list. In May, Winner released their debut Japanese single, which contained Japanese renditions of "REALLY REALLY" and "FOOL". On August 4, Winner made a comeback with the single album Our Twenty Four. Two singles, "LOVE ME LOVE ME" and "ISLAND" were released. "LOVE ME LOVE ME" was chosen by Dazed Digital as one of the 20 best K-Pop songs of 2017.63 As of December 2017, "REALLY REALLY" surpassed the 100 million stream mark, making Winner the first ever male idol group in history to surpass 100 million streams, while keeping their ''''Chart-In' status. WINNER also appeared in the fourth season of tvN's program Youth Over Flowers, where the four-piece traveled to Australia. The last episode was aired on January 2018. 2018 - Second full-album EVERYD4Y In February 2018, Winner released their second Japanese single, Our Twenty Four, which contained the japanese versions of 'LOVE ME LOVE ME' and 'ISLAND', and two new original Japanese songs, "Raining" and "Have a Good Day". They also embarked on their fourth Japan Concert Tour. On April 4, the group's second studio album EVERYD4Y was released along with the title track "Everyday".